Sunday, December 23, 2007

Blow me down!

Last week, we had a snowstorm that gave us about 8" of snow. Yesterday, it got up to 50°, and almost all of the snow is gone--there are just a few spots out in the marshy area behind our yard. Today the winds are howling. It was so loud that it woke me up around 3 AM, and I half expected to hear a tree going down. So far everything is intact, but the winds are still crazy. We're getting a little dusting of snow, but nothing major so far. What a good day to stay inside!

Shane and I had a good laugh the other day. He sent me a YouTube video of "Zoom," a kids' show that aired in the '70's on PBS. I told him it was a total flashback to watch that! We wrote about how it woud be almost impossible to explain to a kid today about how we had only four channels, and one of them was PBS. We were excited when a fifth channel was added--it was a religious channel, but sometimes they showed old sitcoms. How many channels do we have now with satellite? And how many times do we find ourselves saying, "There's nothing on!" Anyway, it got me to thinking about another show from my youth: a homegrown show called "Beyond Our Control" which was done by a Junior Achievement group of high school kids. If I recall, it aired on Sunday afternoons, and I was a faithful viewer. It aired in the '60's and '70's, and while it seems primitive by today's standards, it was actually quite innovative for its time. With plenty of focus on pop culture and commercials, I would say it was the teenage progenitor of ensemble/skit shows like "Saturday Night Live" and "Fridays." There are several videos on YouTube, and it was fun to watch them. For a sampling, I present to you "Toast-R-Soup":

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